UPSC: NASA’S VOYAGER 2 PROBE NEARING INTERSTELLAR SPACE

(This diagram shows the position of the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 probes, relative to the heliosphere, a protective bubble created by the Sun that extends well past the orbit of Pluto. Voyager 1 crossed the heliopause, or the edge of the heliosphere, in 2012. Voyager 2 is still in the heliosheath, or the outermost part of the heliosphere.)

NASA launched the Voyager 1 spacecraft on September 5 1977, and the Voyager 2 on August 20 1977

The Voyagers have set several records, including Voyager 1 being the only craft to fly by all four outer planets

Voyager 2 is a little less than 11 billion miles (about 17.7 billion kilometers) from Earth

Once it exits heliosphere, will become second human-made object after Voyager 1, to enter interstellar space

Since late August, the Cosmic Ray Subsystem instrument on Voyager 2 has measured about a 5 percent increase in the rate of cosmic rays hitting the spacecraft compared to early August, NASA said.

The probe’s Low-Energy Charged Particle instrument has detected a similar increase in higher-energy cosmic rays.Cosmic rays are fast-moving particles that originate outside the solar system.

Some of these cosmic rays are blocked by the heliosphere, so mission planners expect that Voyager 2 will measure an increase in the rate of cosmic rays as it approaches and crosses the boundary of the heliosphere.

NASA’S HISTORIC INSTERSTELLAR VOYAGER MISSION

The Voyager spacecraft were built by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, which continues to operate both.

Nasa launched the Voyager 1 spacecraft on September 5 1977, and the Voyager 2 on August 20 1977.

Each spacecraft carries a golden record on board – a record that includes sounds, pictures and messages of Earth.

Continuing on their more-than-37-year journey since their 1977 launches, they each are much farther away from Earth and the sun than Pluto.

In August 2012, Voyager 1 made the historic entry into interstellar space, the region between stars, filled with material ejected by the death of nearby stars millions of years ago.

Scientists hope to learn more about this region when Voyager 2, in the ‘heliosheath’ — the outermost layer of the heliosphere where the solar wind is slowed by the pressure of interstellar medium — also reaches interstellar space.

Both spacecraft are still sending scientific information about their surroundings through the Deep Space Network, or DSN.

The primary mission was the exploration of Jupiter and Saturn.

After making a string of discoveries there — such as active volcanoes on Jupiter’s moon Io and intricacies of Saturn’s rings — the mission was extended.

Voyager 2 went on to explore Uranus and Neptune, and is still the only spacecraft to have visited those outer planets.

The adventurers’ current mission, the Voyager Interstellar Mission (VIM), will explore the outermost edge of the Sun’s domain. And beyond.